Heat vs Cold. Which kills faster?

Monday, April 18, 2016

I spoke to someone who told me what she had been doing to cope with the heat. It is not news that the global warming is fast becoming a global warning, and it is not smiling with us in Lagos again. To make things worse, situations like this that would have been a non-issue by people sorting themselves out with their generators has now become a big deal because people don’t have fuel to power their generators. This season has become a leveller, and the number of people who can now form ‘status’ have drastically reduced.

Back to the story, she said she couldn’t sleep, no matter how much she tried. No amount of baths or manual ‘fanning’ could stop the heat. So she took her cover cloth, dipped it inside water, and squeezed it. In its damp state, she laid it on the bare ground, lay on it, and immediately, she was able to sleep.

I saw the sense in what she was trying to say. I was hot, so I created a soothing situation for my body, and it cooled me down. But alarm bells rang in my head. Was that even healthy for the body, especially the bones?

Is sleeping on something wet the way to go? Wouldn’t that lead to hypothermia or anything similar? I understand adjusting the temperature of the environment to regulate the weather and our bodies’ reaction to it. But sleeping directly on wet cloth?

Maybe some have tried it in the past, and it has worked. I am not a medical doctor, so I can’t give a definitive answer to this. But it doesn’t sound like something healthy for our body.

I did similar thing. I went to the passage inside the house swept the floor very well, so I won't feel any grain of sand, used wet cloth to mop it that it was a bit damp and slept in my birthday suit, later, the tiles became very cold and I went to lie down on my bed.

I prefer cold to heat. With Cold, you can generate heat without electricity, by wearing layers of clothes, socks and cover yourself with cloth.

Hypothermia kills faster believe me. In Nigeria we do not record people dying because of the heat. If it's too hot, the common consequence would be dehydration and you can remedy that with frequent intake of water and taking baths. In humid countries (where they have winter), it is a serious concern as a lot of deaths are recorded during this period. The government, NGOs, churches, private volunteers have to step in an actively try to help provide heating for the vulnerable people - elderly people, homeless people, etc. Frostbites are very common amongst homeless people. I keep saying Nigerians should thank God that we do not have the kind of issues people in other countries are faced with, we wouldn't survive it. We cannot even generate electricity constantly, I wonder what we would do if we needed to heat up our homes like our lives depended on it.